Hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has commissioned a report on how to prepare for a nuclear-armed Iran as doubt mounts about the efficacy of preventive action, an Israeli source said on Monday.

An Israeli chess grandmaster took the Guinness record for simultaneous chess games from the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran on Friday after a marathon 19-hour match against 523 players.

Israel, despite perennial fears of war, has emerged as one of the hottest - and least likely - property markets in the world: Since real estate collapsed around the globe in 2008, at least one industry watchdog lists it as the fastest-rising property market on earth.

The Palestinians, backed by Arab powers, said on Saturday they would give the United States one month to persuade Israel to halt the building of settlements in the West Bank or risk the collapse of peace talks.

Israel allowed its 10-month settlement construction freeze in the West Bank to expire on Monday, defying a U.S. call to extend the moratorium which Palestinians have said is necessary to keep peace talks going.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ruled out an attack on the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme, during a visit to Qatar on Sunday, because any such action would result in Israel's destruction.

The US warned Lebanon that if it did not prevent any recurrence of the border-fire incident that occurred earlier this month, the IDF would destroy the Lebanese Armed Forces within four hours, Israel Radio cited a report by Lebanese newspaper A-Liwaa on Friday.

President Barack Obama will visit Jerusalem in coming months to press for a Middle East peace deal to be signed this year and implemented within a decade, according to a leaked White House report.